The present invention relates to equipment for changing a blade, which blade is intended for use in connection with doctoring or coating, and which is preferably arranged as a flexible band with one or several blades, the equipment including                a first reel in connection with one end of the blade holder for storing the unused band reeled,        a second reel in connection with the other end of the blade holder for storing the used band reeled,        transfer devices for moving the band in the blade holder between the reels, and        guide devices for guiding the band from the reel to the blade holder and/or from the blade holder to the reel, which guide devices are arranged to turn the band longitudinally to be essentially parallel to the blade holder.        
Blades intended for doctoring and coating are used particularly in paper and board machines and in their finishing equipment. Conventionally, blades are changed manually. However, changing long blades is difficult and can even be dangerous. In addition, changing a blade is time consuming. This means that effective production time is reduced, while the blade changing also ties down workers.
Finnish patent number 103596 discloses equipment for changing a doctor blade, in which a band-like blade is fed from a reel to a blade holder and is then pulled from the blade holder onto a second reel. Thus, when changing blades, a band containing several blades can be fed simply with the aid of the operating devices. However, feeding the band by means of the changing equipment described is often difficult, because in reality there is generally little space around the doctor apparatus. The reels must then be located far away from the doctor apparatus, so that the band must be led using complicated guide devices. This makes the changing equipment less reliable and increases the purchase and operating costs of the changing equipment.